Pilates Geek

Amy is, simply put, amazing. She is the best. After working with amy for over a year, my overall level of health and wellbeing are much higher. Class with her is both physically and technically challenging. Going beyond that, however, Amy is very patient with adjusting and educating. I’ve had Pilates classes where I was never sure if I was doing things correctly, or I felt like the instructor let people get away with sloppy form. Not with Amy! In her extremely friendly way, she will always make sure that you are doing things properly, and she will also explain why. For me, this is what really differentiates Amy. I don’t feel like she has just improved my body, but I feel she has also helped me to understand why the things that we do in pilates are important, as well as general education around how bodies function, and how our lifestyles can cause dysfunction.
With patience, friendliness, and humor Amy tirelessly works with her students to not only transform their bodies, but transform their understanding of their bodies. She is phenomenal.

I am not usually this dramatic, but I feel like Amy has changed my life and my body. I used to suffer from chronic headaches and back pain that I got after years of working a stressful desk job. I tried lots of other things in the past to help my situation: physical therapy, chiropractic, swimming, fitness classes at the gym, massage, etc. But nothing ever provided lasting relief. Within a few weeks of working with Amy, my back pain was reduced significantly and my headaches were less frequent. After a year, the headaches are almost non-​existant and the back pain is minimal. My posture is also much better, and my hips and shoulder blades that were twisted are now much more centered and even. I still want to continue improving all of these things, but doing Pilates with Amy is the first thing that’s actually made a significant improvement in my body.
Whether you have specific issues that you want to address, or just want to improve your overall strength and flexibility, if you commit to doing pilates at least twice a week, I guarantee that Amy can enable you to reach your goals.

Whether you’re new to Pilates or have been doing it for a while and are looking for an attentive and knowledgeable instructor, Amy is going to be the perfect fit. I am part of the latter group, having been a student of Pilates since 2008. Ever since I moved away from the studio that I originally learned from, I’ve struggled to find instructors that actually pay attention to form (which if it is wrong, then your throwing your $ away). Immediately upon moving here from DC, I tried out a Amy’s small-​group session and some other classes around the city for comparison, but her technique could not be matched. If I had to break it down to three things that keep me coming back, it would be:
1. Although you’re in a «class» environment, she proactively provides each student with corrective advice and gives clear explanations/​demonstrations for how something should be done and the areas of your body the move is targeting. Nothing will feel rushed — this is not one of those cardio-​Pilates classes with music bumping in the background!
2. With a background in both Pilates and Yoga, she has a very integrated method that enables her to both stay true to tradition and also introduce new techniques that she discovers through her continuous curiosity.
3. The value goes far beyond just attending the class. She’s invested in you fully, even offering advice/​techniques for ways to continue your Pilates practice outside of class.
Pilates Novice? — go try a mat class around the city that has 15+ people in it and then go spend an hour with Amy. I guarantee you will notice a difference.
Advanced? — the choice should be fairly clear to you if you were taught well :)
Now, go practice those teasers…

I have been getting private sessions with Amy for the past year or so. The great thing is that Amy is very responsive to my particular needs. For example, I have been having some back pains from too much office work as well as some pains in my wrist. She’s come up with a regimen specifically geared for those areas and I am gradually feeling better with each session. Well worth it!

Amy comes to my work every other week and runs a pilates session for us. I don’t know enough about yoga and pilates to tell you if Amy is good or not, but she doesn’t laugh at me during the sessions, and she certainly could.

Amy has been coming to my office for a few months for group lessons. I had an issue with my wrists hurting and she got on the phone with me and walked me through some exercises that gave me instant relief.
Recently I hurt by lower back and have been going to Amy for private sessions. She has been focusing on my lower back and hamstrings and my back is far less tight after just 2 sessions with her. I would highly recommend taking private lessons from Amy to really understand the way your body/​muscles/​skeleton works and start gaining some good habits with regards to your posture.

Amazing!
Really helping me with my posture and core strength.

Amy has been coming into my work place to teach pilates now for a bit. It’s not really «hardcore» as you have with reformers, but instead it’s geared towards issues that we develop when sitting behind a computer all day.
A few things that have been really great for me during her sessions
— Amy has very good technical knowledge of our muscles and joints. It’s been helpful as I’ve been recovering from sciatic issues. It also helps knowing that she knows what she’s talking about
— She’ll take time to talk about the issues we often have and will talk about how we can go about correcting them when we are at our desks
— Understanding that we’re most likely not going to change our lifestyle, but we can make small adjustments to reduce or eliminate some problems
It’s been a wonderful program and I can certainly tell that I’ve improved my posture when sitting and some physical pains have been lessened or have gone away.